A few new additions to the Favorites albums
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wj7Bc9VF4C8pux6N8
Rather a shitty picture of the star of my garden, the very first 'Munstead Wood' rose to open. Sooty, velvety, diamond-dusted and a deep, luscious purple-red, it smells like what every other rose in the world is trying to smell like. Can you tell I'm in love? But take a good look at those thorns. Every branch is like that. This is a perfect, open, spreading bush rose, a repeat bloomer, and it'll make yer yard stink purdy.
Alum root pretty much losing it's mind here.
Yes, this is corny. No, I don't care. I DO have everything, INCLUDING the kitchen sink, thank you. I think I post this same lame old joke every year, but I get to. So there. Eventually I'll scrub it up and fill it with sedums, but for now, here it is in it's native state. Pure. Untouched.
People are beginning to slow down and take pictures already. Mainly it's the Itoh Red peony - it went off like a roman candle!
This is right out by the sidewalk at the front corner of the property. It's hyooge this year, and really stealing the show!
I've come by to say "Hello" and I see that you are from my neck of the woods! I suspected as much when you mentioned Buchart Gardens in BC. I've recently returned to blogging after a nearly decades long hiatus. It was only Mago63 keeping attached by a thread and now here I am. I'm South of you in Woodinville with the wine and the horses. Have a good week!
ReplyDeleteMelanie Reynolds: You couldn't have picked a better thread. Mago's been my bud from way back when. Woodinville is a great part of Washington! We used to stop in there back when we did a lot of motorcycling. There was a winery that made honey wine, megethlin and mead (We could only afford the honey wine, but WOW it was good.) You're also in a solid UDSA zone 7. Do you garden?
ReplyDeleteOh, yes! Peonies really do steal the show, don't they? Unfortunately over here in the UK you can practically guarantee that the moment their big, blowsy blooms open, there'll be a torrential downpour and every one of 'em will be on the floor. [We can't grown them anyway because were almost entirely growing in pots.]
ReplyDeleteThe Roses are gorgeous, too, of course - we have a (well-behaved, thankfully) rambler Veichenblau that I grew from a cutting a few years back, and this year invested in our second - an English rose Gertrude Jeckyll. If the storms ever cease here in London, we'll be able to really appreciate how fantastic this season really is - everything's growing leaps and bounds before our eyes... Jx
PS As I'm sure you already know, the alpine relative of "Coral Bells"/Alumroot/Heuchera was used by the Tlingit as an herbal remedy for inflammation of the testicles caused by syphilis.
I like the unexpected items in your garden.
ReplyDeleteJon: OMG Veichenblau! What a showstopper! And you cannot go wrong with anything David Austin IMHO. Gertrude Jekyll is a fantastic selection. She's gonna get big, though. You're growing this in a container? Hope it's a big ol' container. Re Heuchera glabra - I'm ready. Got a few of them growing in the shade bed. The instant I feel my testicles tingle I'M READY FOR IT.
ReplyDeleteanne marie in philly: Thank you! I garden the way my grandmother used to garden. She'd put crazy things around, like doll parts in the apple trees, and old pots and pans and tins stuff around with things planted in them, and you'd run into them under the hydrangeas and the evergreen grotto she had out back. It delighted her, and it delighted me too.
ReplyDeleteAccording to David Austin's site, it's suitable for growing in pots as it is a medium sized shrub. I know they also supply it as a climber, so I assume they've grafted the shrub version to smaller rootstock nowadays? Jx
ReplyDeleteJon: I bet you're right. Here, where I usually buy my David Austins, they nursery has let their GJ have free run, and it's halfway up the side of a barn and about the size of a minivan. You have to figure it was planted quite a while ago. DA knows what they're doing. That's why they're my favorite rose. They're absolutely everything promised, and they use the best of the best.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question, Do I garden? I'm doing an environmental restoration project of nearly 2 acres, an Army of one for the most part. My partner is a point and mow kind of guy. It looks a lot like gardening. It's but a tiny refuge. I'm losing the war. Development keeps encroaching on all side of me trimming away at what remains of the wildlife corridor that once connected my neighborhood to the Paradise Lake Conservation area. It's normal for bears, coyotes, deer, hawks and other animals to hang out with me. My neighbors call me Snow White, but I'm sadly lacking in the help of muscular dwarves.
ReplyDelete